Booker Prize
Cheshire author Alan Garner has become the oldest person to be shortlisted for a Booker Prize.
He was born in Congleton in 1934, but grew up in Alderley Edge – and he is best-known for his novel The Weirdstone of Brisingamen which is set there.
Awards and honours
In 2001 he was awarded an OBE for his services to literature.
His long and distinguished career has led to him being recognised with numerous awards and honours.
In 1968, he won the Guardian Award and the Carnegie Medal for The Owl Service – and he was the first author to win both of these awards for the same book.
He won the Phoenix Award in 1996 for The Stone Book Quartet, and Elidor was a 1965 runner-up for the Carnegie medal.
Garner was also awarded the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1970 for The Weirdstone of Brisingamen.
He also won first prize at the Chicago International Film Festival for his film Images (which he wrote and presented) and the Karl Edward Wagner Award (for lifetime achievement) at the 2003 British Fantasy Awards.
Garner was nominated for this year’s Booker Prize for his latest novel, Treacle Walker.
Eight years in the making
He said the process of writing Treacle Walker – from initial idea to completed novel – took almost exactly eight years.
He said: “It’s a pleasure and an honour for the work to be recognised.
“As for winning, I’m of the ‘fail better’ school, which is another way of saying the donkey must never catch the carrot. So winning would be a spur rather than an end.
“It would also help my wife and me to look after the ancient house that has looked after us for more than 60 years and has enabled me to write.”
Garner writes in what was the buttery of a medieval timber frame hall.
He describes his workspace as a slightly tidier version of Francis Bacon’s studio – with books, rather than paint, for decoration.
He added: “The process that led to Treacle Walker lasted from 22nd July 2012 to 25 July 2020.
“It began with an anecdote a friend told me, which I instantly knew would produce a novel, though what kind of a novel it would be I had no idea.”
Treacle Walker
The story’s titular character, Treacle Walker is based on a tramp from Yorkshire who claimed to heal all things but jealousy.
Little is known about him, except that he was born at the beginning of the twentieth century, near Huddersfield.
His nickname is said to have come about after he was observed shopping for a pound of tape and a yard of treacle.
Writing process
Speaking about his writing process, Garner said: “I write and revise in longhand, then transfer to the computer for safety.
“Word-building is an organic process, and the elbow is a good editor; whereas, for me, the click of a keyboard has neither rhythm, direction, energy, nor life.
“Over time, the way of writing has moved from a carving of words as I went along to now, when (once the intensive and protracted research has been done) a long period of physical and mental sluggishness overcomes me, which is broken abruptly by ‘seeing’ and ‘hearing’ the start of the book, with little understanding of what it’s about.
“Next, the closing sentences frequently appear, and I’ve learnt to write them down without question.
“Then it’s largely a matter of ‘watching’ the story unroll as a film and getting it onto paper. It’s a mysterious, but not a mystical, sensation.”
Age
Speaking about being the oldest author to ever be shortlisted for the prize, Garner said: “Age, in itself, is irrelevant.
“However, as with all skills, an apprenticeship has to be served, through practice and experience.”
The winner of the Booker Prize 2022 will be announced at the Roundhouse in London on 17th October, which will coincidentally also be Garner’s 88th birthday.
